Onward and Upward! How to live an uncommon life.

You needn’t see it to believe it.

I had an unusual conversation yesterday that I feel is worthy of further consideration. A new acquaintance, whom I have not met in person, asked me where I thought the world was headed. What a whopper of a question! She qualified her question with a mention of the Mayan Calendar, which as I understand it predicts a massive shift in the year 2012 and a number of her own observations on the matter.

Many predictions of doom and death have come and gone – even within my lifetime – with little to no outer evidence of their coming true. Some claim Nostradamus pointed to big changes in our present era while others made more specific predictions based on astrological alignments (e.g. 5/5/200) that ended up being no more devastating than the Y2K bug.

That said, I cannot help but feel that we are living in a momentous era. My reply to the question was qualified by the fact that I work in the field of energetic medicine, where the physics of the body are given as much weight as its biochemistry. For instance, doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), an effective system of medicine developed thousands of years ago in the East, work on the basis that what happens physically in the body happens first in the energy flow of the body. To a TCM practitioner, disease manifests first invisibly in the energetic body before it appears in the physical body.

Many of the more “sensitive” or “intuitive” types I know share the conviction that change is afoot. It may not yet be visible or tangible to the typical person, but as with our health, the invisible precedes the visible and the canaries in the mine are agitated. Just as I am open to the observations of my trainer who is infinitely more sensitive and perceptive in the field of horseback riding, I am inclined to listen to those more sensitive to me as I refuse to be prejudiced by the view that says “I can’t see it or measure it so therefore it is not real or valuable.”

Maybe the predictions related more to the energetic pattern of the body of humanity – its physics – than its actual, physical body. Maybe the failure is occurring at that level, as we speak? Who knows, really? Are we so bound by the present borders of our understanding – both scientific and spiritual – that we are willing to dismiss the possibility, without any consideration at all? Snobbery and fanaticism are as rife in the scientific community as they are in the religious community and I believe that we could all benefit from a more open-minded view of the possibilities.

I’ve often wondered if the changes that need to be made to move off of the path of self-destruction relate to the necessity of making more subtle, internal and therefore less visible changes, for what’s true of the individual tends also to be true of the body of humanity. A good driver, for instance, makes the constant adjustments in steering and pace in a way that the more extreme moves are not required. Making the little changes obviates the need for the larger, more dramatic and dare I say, cataclysmic changes down the road.

In medicine, you can make the change at the level of qi, with often imperceptible interventions. You can make the changes when biochemical or physical precursors to disease are discovered. Or you can wait until the disease manifest fully, an approach that requires the most invasive and potentially dangerous interventions. The longer you wait to deal with something, the more difficult it will be to handle. Isn’t that true in all spheres of life?

I have faith in humanity. I am not convinced that we are inexorably bound to destroy ourselves as a result of what has come to be known as “human nature.” As I’ve mentioned before, what is accepted as being permanent is only perceived as such because it has been around as far back as we remember. We must leave room in our thinking for possibilities that we cannot conceive of from the confines of the box we live in today.

My new acquaintance mentioned that she had recently lost just about everything in her life and as a result she thought a lot more about life than she ever had. I felt for her and can appreciate what she went and is continuing to go through, though I hope that it doesn’t have to come to that point for the human race as a whole.

Let’s make the changes now, step up our game, relinquish the tendencies that are obviously of no benefit to anyone, present or future, and create a brighter world together.

More inner attention to a balanced heart and mind provides the starting points for clear choices.

Clean diet, proper rest, laughter, and movement allow the congestion in the
body to move which provides an environment for a clear heart insync with a clear mind. The two are designed to work together and are the key to being able to make a positive difference in the world. I believe each person was born to do something that no one else can do……and as we listen deeply through a body well cared for…….the starting points are revealed.

The world is far more subtle (and complex) than most think it is. Think about even the largest and most obvious changes we see daily: they most likely started with one person. I believe we are doing things to the world without having even an inkling of the consequence. While they are likely both good and bad consequences, it is a little bit like putting a child in charge of something important – they just don’t know what they don’t know. The difference between this time period and previous periods, is that we have learned enough to make more dramatic changes possible. Just like your post yesterday alluded to, I feel like there is a current we can tap into that will give us the ability to be more sensitive to these shifts that we may not even notice right now. If great power comes with great responsibility, we have a lot of catching up to do on the responsibility side.

From personal experience I can certainly support the truth in what is being highlighted here, it is most certainly advisable to make those changes or shifts in ones living that one see’s or percieves as being fit sooner than later, even if forceably at first, movement from the comfort zone one is used to is almost always initially uncomfortable, however…. what we find on the other side of that shift is a new comfort zone much more fulfilling than the previous state. I believe the challenge is in the doing, and following through. Actually.
3 frogs are on a log,
one makes a decision to jump,
how many frogs are on the log?

The answer is 3, as one only made a decision to jump, he didn’t actually do it. A clear differentiation we often mistake for doing is deciding to do it, without following through.

Wow that was interesting. I believe that a few can turn the tide for many. I’ve seen it for the worse such as in riots or walk outs, where a few started something and most got caught up before they even thought. I’ve also seen it for the better when someone set an example of kindness, forgiveness or bravery. Leadership is key. What we do in our own lives counts.
Keep on Gregg!